The Augustinian or Austin Friars, London, c. A.D. 1350.
Leicestershire, built between 1275 and 1290, as appears by an inscription still remaining: the windows have mostly geometrical tracery, but several have flowing. The same mixture occurs at Selby Abbey, and St. Mary’s, Beverley. In some instances windows with geometrical tracery have the moldings and the mullions covered with the ball-flower ornament in great profusion, even to excess: these examples occur chiefly in Herefordshire, as at Leominster; and in Gloucestershire, as in the south aisle of the nave of the Cathedral at Gloucester: they are for the most part, if not entirely, of the time of Edward II.
| Finedon, c. A.D. 1350. | Higham Ferrars, c. A.D. 1360. |
Finedon, and Higham Ferrars, Northants, are good examples of the ogee form of arch, and the manner in which the tracery is made to harmonise with the arch is very pleasing to the eye, and not very common.
What is called the net-like character of tracery, from its general resemblance to a fisherman’s net, is very characteristic of this style at its best period, about the middle of the fourteenth century, of which there is a very fine example in the west window of the Franciscan Friary at Reading, p. 143, of which the remains are valuable, although a great deal of it was destroyed in the Georgian era, from the neglect that was usual at that period. It has been carefully restored in the time of Queen Victoria, at the expense of a gentleman of Reading, and is now used as a chapel-of-ease for the large parish in which it is situated. The roof now used at St. Mary’s Church in Reading is said to have originally belonged to this chapel. One of the side windows, with a segmental head of the same period, is also a very good example of the style. This kind of tracery is the most usual characteristic of this style, and begins in the time of Edward II. There are good examples of this period in the south aisles of the churches of St. Mary Magdalene and St. Aldate’s, Oxford.
The inner arch, or rear-arch, is frequently of a different shape and proportion to the outer one: there is also sometimes a series of open cusps hanging from it, called hanging foliation.
West Window, Franciscan Friary, Reading, c. A.D. 1350.